That is the title of the press release I got today.
Although from the “teaser” domains that appeared int the release seem to be, well lets say, of less quality than what we in the industry are used to seeing, the Seller is a has one of the great quotes about domain names (I added the emphasis to it).
If the domain auction get some juice behind it and if the portfolio does manage to sell, it would be great for the industry. After all we have all seen item sell on ebay which are lets say “overpriced”. Remember the cheese sandwich? The Redsox Jersey?
Anyway here is the funny part of the release:
“”””Noted Los Angeles photographer Fernando Escovar is auctioning off what may be the world’s largest domain name portfolio valued at $1.5 million. The portfolio contains 1500 English, Spanish, Tech, TV and geo-centric domain names including many Las Vegas names. The auction will go live on eBay on June 3, 2008. A portion of the auction’s proceeds will be donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.””””
Wow the world’s largest domain name portfolio is 1,500 names worth 1.5 million dollars.
Who knew?
Now for one of the great quotes I have seen on domains:
“In the game Monopoly, the person with the most properties usually wins. In this virtual age, whoever owns a list of highly valued and trafficked domain names owns the internet,”
Now here is a guy who gets it.
He who owns the traffic, owns the internet.
Great quote for all domainers, even those of us who don’t own such a sizable portifillo of 1,500 domains
Here is the rest of the release:
“In this portfolio, the virtual world closely reflects the real world,” Escovar says, noting that there are approximately 80 towers under construction in Vegas right now. “The portfolio includes highly desirable names such as www.lasvegastowers.com and www.lasvegastower.com, Share-Holder.com, Comision.com,Vegasi.com, and ReportTV.com which should be of great interest to real estate investors and developers.”
The online auction is targeting individuals or groups who will buy the portfolio in one lot.
Brokers are welcome, with commission terms to be discussed on an individual basis. The domain names will not be sold separately, as the portfolio will not be broken up. Escovar notes that because the portfolio contains a large quantity of Spanish domain names, he has been receiving some pre-sale interest from international buyers.
About Fernando Escovar
Born in Los Angeles of Colombian descent, Fernando Escovar is one of Hollywood’s premiere celebrity photographers with a client list that includes David Beckham, Eva Longoria, Carmen Electra, Eva Mendes, Pamela Anderson, Traci Bingham, Lisa Guerrero, Brooke Burke, Tom Green, and George Lopez. Escovar studied fashion design at Otis-Parsons College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and went on to establish his own photography studio. In addition to celebrity portraits, Escovar’s work includes shooting for magazines such as Las Vegas, Player, Silver and Max Street, and numerous videos. He has been featured on TLC, NBC Nightly News, KCAL 9 and Steel Dreams TV. Escovar is currently in development for his own reality TV show, based on his adventures in photography.
We will post a link to the auction on June 3rd.
This would be good for the industry however didn’t he try this a couple years back? I remember seeing his name 4-5 years ago – possibly trying to move the same lot. Would like to see the list of names he owns – as from what I know most are not really premium domains (in our opinion). I know he once stated (or someone did) that the domain speedboattv.com was sold for $300,000 but that domain points back to his own site today.
More power to him if he can use ebay to find a buyer for the lot but with 1,500 premium names a seller would do much better auctioning the names off at Snap or Moniker’s live.
Time will tell – interesting to see his name around again all the same.
Not too much power to him. If this quality attracts $1,000,000 then there should be 7 octillion dollars worth of unregistered domains right now. There should be some standard.
You have the give the guy credit for trying, but he would have done better pre-2000 when the public could be hyped into going after names like this.
Today, 99% of domainers read these press releases and yawn.
Jody
Have to disagree with you. There should be no standard. It’s a free market system and personally I hope the guy gets 10 million dollars for his domains.
The more he get the more valuable all our domains become.
I give him credit for trying but I would give him more credit if he purchased CelebrityPhotographer.com. If names like this have value then the supply would be 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 and the demand would 0. Big price tags and small offers all over the place. Wish some would put their money where there mouth is (not you of course) and buy more actively to make a more thriving domain market.
Not implying these are worthless. I feel most domains are undervalued, but something is wrong with the, what do they call it, maybe the “economies of scale” here if this sells for $1,000,000, while so much better quality is out there for that price.
I agree that there are plenty of domains that are undervalued, however even more that price themselves out of reality. BUT, as we’ve seen Fund.com $9.9 million? Same goes for Topix.com for over $1 million. Obviously Fund.com is a great domain, but how many would have *honestly appraised this domain anywhere close to $9.9? In my opinion, not a single sole.
As far as this portfolio up for sale, I wish him the best of luck, but his PR release is simply terrible. He gave examples of domains with hypens…that’s really all I have to say. ReportTV.com is a great domain without question, but no where near as valuable as Report.TV, *(another conversation in itself). I would be very, very interested in seeing the entire lot of domains and will be curious to see what happens.
My only concern is, if some of the not-so-good names are priced way too high what does that do to the newbies domain listings? I recently had to advise a friend (new domainer) to stop slapping $50,000 on everything she owns despite some of the lack of quality. She had seen inflated numbers on bad domains that sold therefore she raised prices killing her sales…
John
http://unplain.com
Fernando’s portfolio may have been edited by a publicist with little education in domaining, who only mentioned domains that for some reason sparked their own interest…
If you go to his website, http://www.fotographer.com you will see that the guy has quite a few interesting projects in the works. What I am wondering is what compelled him to register those 1500 domains in the first place? Rarely does someone go to that length registering domains without some basic interest or know how in the marketplace.
Perhaps his great domains are in Spanish and the guy writing the press release figured it wouldn’t get as broad coverage if the names were “foreign” to the average reader….
Good for him for getting the word out!
This collection could be an appealing investment for a large financial institution that is seeking a quick way to diversify away from residential mortgages, but whose fund managers do not have a firm grasp on the realities of online real estate.
Washington Mutual, Citibank and Bank of America (Countrywide) come first to mind. The tidiness of acquiring 1500 domains in one swoop is handier than having to acquire domains piecemeal. It also distributes the downside from the duds in the collection.
I welcome such new market participants. Perhaps they can securitize this portfolio and resell shares throughout the financial services industry, much as sub-prime mortgages were securitized and resold.
Great News and very interesting response and I do agree with David – You have the give the guy credit for trying.
I totally give him credit too. You gotta swing your bat
for the fence and its more than a fair price. Fernando Escovar is helping the industry if you ask me.
I don’t know if you guys saw the other press release
Escovar is challenging Donald Trump on this sale.
10% of the sale goes to Make A Wish Foundation
and if Trump buys the lot Escovar will make the donation 20% because that’s Trump’s #1 charity.
I think DT will benefit from the sale the most because
his popularity will get him WAY more traffic with those names…